Venomous Heart

by Mary Auclair

  Her body needed Arlen’s touch like it needed oxygen. She had no more choice in responding to his demand than she had a choice to breathe, or to allow the blood to flow through her veins.

  “Do you want it, Little Wonder?” His voice slid across her skin like the caress of a tongue, humid and hot. “Do you want to belong to me as much as I want you to?”

  She tried not to answer, not to surrender to the way her back arched in her desperation to get closer to him. She needed to touch him so much it hurt.

  Arlen’s hand closed over her throat and he lifted her head gently, tilting it to the side. His hot mouth settled on her taut skin and Ava’s entire body shivered. His heat blazed through the fine silk at her back and as he massaged more Mating Venom onto her skin, her nipples hardened and the need radiated from her core, taking control of all her senses.

  Arlen’s mouth opened until he could grab her pulsing throat between his powerful jaws, like a large cat. Fangs dug into her skin as his tongue licked slowly between his teeth. Ava began to pant and she realized, mortified, that her hands were creeping up to the front of her dress.

  She was going to touch herself in front of everyone because of the Mating Venom. She could never look anyone in the eye ever again.

  She was saved from embarrassing herself forever by two hands closing around her wrists like vise grips. The fangs at her throat pushed harder, breaking the skin, and a sharp pain shot through her. Sudden panic overtook Ava’s lust and she whined in fear.

  “Don’t,” she whispered. “Please don’t bite me there. You could kill me.”

  His jaws loosened, but his grip on her wrists didn’t. Instead of speaking, he began panting, too. Ava turned sideways to see him gulping air in a fast and frenzied fashion. His pale blue eyes gleamed, but not in the usual way. They were glowing, as though they weren’t eyes at all, but beacons lit from within. The light intensified until it was enough to cast shadows across his high cheekbones, and still Arlen was panting.

  He looked more and more terrifying by the second.

  Then, all of a sudden, Arlen tugged her arms straight out until she was stretched and exposed, like some sort of primitive presentation to the crowd.

  No, not a presentation. A claiming.

  Then he opened his mouth and a song like a brand blanketed the night. His voice was deep and pleasant as the notes grew and grew, floating through the still air as his chest vibrated. He didn’t pause, didn’t take a breath, just kept singing without words. That song didn’t need any lyrics.

  Somewhere inside her, she understood what this was on an instinctive level. This song was a claim, a proclamation that she was his. That she now belonged to him down to her very core. Still, Arlen held her, her arms open, him standing behind her as he sang, the strange possessiveness of his song humming into her mind. She didn’t dare move, didn’t dare speak as he went on.

  Then, just when she thought he would drop from lack of oxygen, Arlen stopped.

  And a pain mixed with the most exquisite pleasure exploded in the curve of her shoulder as he bit deeply into her flesh. Mating Venom rushed into her bloodstream, releasing a storm of sensations all the way to her core. Her body rocked back and forth, an orgasm shooting through her body like an explosion.

  In that moment, as she screamed her pleasure for all to see, she knew that she would never belong to anyone else but him.

  11

  Arlen

  Take her. Take the female.

  The thought shot through him as Mating Venom flowed steadily through his mouth, entering her bloodstream. Ava screamed, the pleasure induced by the complex array of hormones and chemicals binding her to him, sending her body into overdrive. The impulse to take her body under his and seal their union was like a tide, his seed stem pulsing with the need, making him ache painfully.

  It would only grow. It would rise and rise until he united their bodies and sealed their union.

  Finally, Arlen released her, his fangs leaving her flesh. The taste of her blood mixed with the aftermath of her pleasure. His mind was foggy with lust as she collapsed in his arms.

  I need to calm down. I can’t take her like this.

  But his arms closed around Ava’s limp body and he lifted her, cradling her to his chest possessively. In a remote corner of his mind, he recognized the Prussian blue warrior walking toward him on the platform. It didn’t matter. He had his mate, and no one was going to take her from him.

  “Brother.” The warrior lifted a hand in an appeasing gesture. “You can’t take her with you.”

  Arlen hissed, vaguely aware of the terrified faces in the crowd. Somewhere in the distance, a large insect-like creature watched, mandibles clicking with displeasure.

  “Arlen. Your mind is gone to the lust.” The warrior spoke again, but through the feverish fog of Arlen’s lust, his words barely made sense. “Give her to me. Give me Ava.”

  Arlen roared, his talons shooting out as the feral instinct overtook him. Humans turned to run away as the Prussian blue warrior kept moving toward him, his hands extended.

  “Don’t do this.” That voice again, male, and threatening to take away what mattered most to him. The only thing that mattered.

  Murderous intent flashed inside Arlen, clear and potent. Images of blood and gore, of his year of constant fighting at the Frontier. It would be so easy to kill this one. He was young and brash, foolish to approach even when Arlen gave him all the warnings to stay away.

  Don’t. This is your brother. This is Khal.

  Arlen took a step back, cradling Ava’s limp body even closer.

  “You’re going to hurt her.” Khal spoke, and this time, the words reached his consciousness. “Don’t do this. She can’t take a feral rut.”

  Khal was right. Arlen was lost so completely, he risked rutting her in the old, primitive ways of the Eok warriors. And that would injure Ava in more ways than one. That would break her mind as well as her body.

  “Stay away.” His voice was barely coherent, the words half-lost in a vicious growl, but he was able to talk. “I won’t hurt Ava. But I need to take her to my rooms now. Keep all other males away.”

  Khal stopped, holding his gaze for a long moment, until he finally nodded. There was nothing the younger Eok could do to prevent Arlen from sealing the Mating by claiming Ava’s body. But at least he wasn’t lost to the madness of the Mating Venom anymore.

  As Arlen walked into the mansion, carrying his bloodmate in his arms, he was aware of two golden eyes, fixed on him with horror. Then he was in his rooms and as the door locked behind them, he was alone with Ava. He looked down at the female in his arms.

  And two striking purple eyes stared back at him.

  Ava moved within his hold and he reluctantly allowed her to stand, but didn’t open his arms to free her. There was no more freedom, not for him, and not for her.

  Midnight God, I am truly lost.

  Ava’s violet eyes were a soft color under the fiery light of the setting sun. Shadows played over the curves of her face, making the lovely shape of her full lips irresistible.

  Just a taste. A taste, and then I’ll stop.

  It was a lie, but a lie he couldn’t avoid. He couldn’t stop, not anymore. Whether he admitted it or not, the Mating Venom would push him to the limit and beyond, into an abyss he wouldn’t return from.

  Arlen closed the distance between Ava’s lips and his. Her mouth yielded with a delectable ease, opening to his demand as his tongue slid inside and over her own. The Mating Venom spread inside her mouth, renewing her arousal.

  She squirmed and moaned at the kiss. He could smell it on her, that tangy scent of female arousal, the liquid honey between her legs spreading and mixing with that already spilled.

  It made his desire imperious and his seed stem ached, straining against the restraint of his pants. He couldn’t wait anymore. He didn’t want to wait anymore.

  He reached beneath her knees, lifting her with ease, her legs parting on each side of his hips. As she mo
ved, her smell became stronger, filling the room, giving no respite to his senses. He kissed her again, needing the surrender of her mouth as she gave in so easily, so utterly deliciously.

  He walked her blindly toward the bed, then laid her down on the mattress before pulling back. He wanted to see her, draped in red, her hair cascading wild and free around her head, spreading like flames. Never had he seen anything more beautiful in his life.

  Ava stared at him in silence, her delicate features expectant, arousal making her lips redder and her cheeks flushed. Her scent filled his nostrils and his seed stem pulsed with need but he ignored it.

  He wanted to savor every inch of her. Engrave this moment in his memory so it was there whenever he closed his eyes.

  His hand reached between her small breasts and a talon pushed out. Ava froze, eying the deadly weapon that was as inherent to his body as his fangs or his skin, but she didn’t protest. He slid it slowly, careful not to mar the perfect, almost translucent skin, from the pulsing base of her throat down to where the dress compressed her small breasts.

  He sliced through the shimmering, ludicrously expensive fabric in one clean, easy motion, then opened the sides of the dress to reveal the treasure inside.

  “So beautiful.” His talon brushed the tip of a pink, erect nipple and smiled when Ava moaned. “So responsive.”

  His eyes raked her curves, from her small, round breasts to her narrow waist and the fullness of her hips, then to the soft naked skin between her legs that was the origin of that entrancing smell.

  “You are a wonder.”

  Ava didn’t answer, but as his hand closed around the inside of her knee, she parted her legs eagerly. More of her smell filled the air; sweet and tangy, feminine and aroused.

  “Touch me.” Ava’s voice was a plea, and it made him smile. She was his bloodmate. She should crave his touch as much as he craved hers. “Please, I need it.”

  He locked gazes with her, then ran his hand along the inside of her silky thigh up to the center. His thumb brushed the needy wetness hidden between the folds of sensitive skin, and Ava moaned, deep and long.

  “Not yet, my little wonder. Not yet.”

  His hands ran over her stomach as she twisted on the bed, then up those rounded hips and that slender waist. The feel of her skin under his touch was like living silk, soft and fragile, entirely erotic. Finally, he closed his fingers around a small, round breast. Her nipples were hard little nubs and he pinched one delicately. Ava moved under his touch, her moan turning tortured and full of a female need so intense, he nearly lost control.

  But not yet. He wanted more of her. He wanted all of her.

  He kissed her as he moved his body over hers, spreading her legs open with his knees, never breaking the kiss. Ava grew bolder under him, her small hands running over his body, up the naked skin of his chest, spreading a fire that could only be extinguished in one way. Her scent filled his nostrils, female and aroused as she ground her hips against his erection.

  “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” Arlen freed her mouth and Ava panted against his neck. He knew her reaction to his touch was manipulated by the Mating Venom, that this wasn’t truly what she wanted, that she didn’t truly have a choice. That this was wrong, to take choice away from her, but he was powerless against it. The Mating Venom was washing away his hold on his own desires.

  Ava didn’t answer, instead, she reached boldly between their bodies as if to touch his hard length—only to withdraw her small hand at the last moment.

  His answer to her touch was one of pure instinct. He bent to her breast, then took the tiny bundle of flesh between his teeth, applying just enough pressure to make her cry out while his other hand was busy squeezing her other breast. Then he changed, working his tongue over the sensitive skin of her nipple, the Mating Venom entering her bloodstream with each stroke from his tongue.

  The taste of her skin was good, the feeling under his tongue making him want to explore more of that wonderful body with his mouth, with his hands.

  With his seed stem.

  Ava was growing impatient, her hands on his body getting bolder, running across his back to the naked, sensitive skin just above his pelvis. Then she slid her hand down the front of his pants, her fingers stopping just above the tip of his throbbing member. Her small, blunt teeth nipped at the skin of his neck, sending such a rush of lust down Arlen’s body that he growled. She had no idea what she was doing, of the implications for herself if he lost it.

  He wanted to rut her, long and hard. Feral.

  She froze, her fingers just above the throbbing length, and he knew she was scared.

  As she should be.

  “If you do this,” Arlen spoke low and harshly against the quivering skin of her breast, “I won’t be able to wait.”

  Ava didn’t move from under him, her hand still flat on his lower belly, but there was a sense of awareness around her that wasn’t there before. Awareness of the danger she was in with him.

  “Are you going to hurt me?” Her voice was small and tremulous, but also heavy with desire.

  “Never.” The promise was easy to make. She had insinuated herself into the very core of him, to that place he had thought forsaken and locked up forever. He would die before he hurt her. “I will never hurt you, Ava. But I will take you much rougher than I intended to if you don’t stop.”

  “What could make me want to stop this?” She pushed her fingers just a bit lower inside his pants, brushing the sensitive tip of his seed stem. The contact sent Arlen’s lust into overdrive, and in a flash of instinct, his teeth closed around the softness of her breast, his fangs pushing against the fine silk of her skin, just breaking the surface. Mating Venom dripped from his fangs, entering her bloodstream through the tiny wounds, making her crazed with lust. The smell of her arousal came to his nostrils, overpowering everything else in his mind.

  He knew he had lost control. Maybe he had been a fool thinking he had any to start with.

  “One last time.” Arlen pushed the words out when all he wanted was to seal a union that ran as deep as the blood in his veins. “Do you want me to stop?”

  “No. I’m begging you, don’t stop.”

  “As you wish.”

  Instinct took over and Arlen discarded his pants then turned to Ava. She still lay on the bed, her legs parted, waiting for his possession. The flesh of her sex was drenched in her fluids, silky soft and ready for him, the smell of it coming up to him in waves. He rested on his knees in front of her, his seed stem fully engorged, jutting long and proud in front of him. Lust engulfed his mind as he ran a finger up and down her slit, testing the wetness of her female channel.

  “Now, my little wonder, you will be truly mine.”

  Ava

  She wanted it, that possession only male flesh could provide, with all the forbidden pleasures that went with it. She wanted it so much it hurt.

  It was wrong, she knew, merely a biological imperative summoned by the potent toxins in Arlen’s Mating Venom. But it didn’t matter that it was wrong, that she had no choice. All she cared about was that burning fire in her body, that ache between her legs that demanded more than another blinding orgasm.

  Arlen reached for her breast, his rough thumb flicking back and forth across her hard nipple, shooting sensations straight to her sex where wetness spread in a warm flood. Ava gasped as he rolled the tiny nub between his thumb and index finger, her head lolling back as she arched her chest toward the delicious sensations, her eyes closing.

  A hard hand closed on her nape, forcing her head back up.

  “No.” Arlen’s voice was a growl again, but this time it didn’t scare her. It made her sex clench almost painfully with need. She wanted it, that raw possession, that total domination, just as much as she feared it. “Look at me, Ava.”

  It was as much an order as it was a plea, and she watched him as he looked down her offered body.

  “So beautiful, so feminine.” There was raw emotion in his voice
as he lowered his face to her chest, then kissed that soft spot at the base of her throat. “You are a wonder, Ava. You are my wonder.”

  He didn’t give her time to answer. His mouth lowered, trailing between her breasts as he kissed and nipped at her skin, making her breathless. Then his lips closed around one taut nipple and he sucked as he flicked his tongue across the sensitive bud. Ava cried out at the rush of sensations as her entire body became alive with prickles of arousal. Then Arlen moved his attention to her other breast until her cries of pleasure turned tortured.

  “All of you,” he whispered against her flesh. “I want all of you.”

  His mouth moved lower, below her breasts, raking her flesh with his fangs between each kiss. When his kisses trailed down to her navel, then lower, she began to shiver. It was all so much, she was almost overwhelmed by all the sensations.

  He sat back, looking down at her as she lay completely exposed, her legs parted on either side of his knees. His hand ran up the inside of her thigh, all the way to the bare flesh of her sex. She knew human women had hair there but she didn’t, as part of the complex gene engineering that made her body.

  Arlen’s thumb slid between her lower lips and she knew he found wetness there. His face was taut and his expression one of intense concentration as he tested her wetness, dipping the tip of a finger just inside her entrance, then out. He ran his thumb higher over her clit and she moaned at the sharp pleasure of his touch.

  “I want to feast on you, my wonder.” He bent between her knees, his fingers parting her lower lips to reveal the vulnerable, quivering flesh of her sex. Ava pushed her head back against the mattress as his breath fanned her wet skin. He flicked his tongue across her slit and growled against her, the vibration nearly making her come right then and there.